Sumen Rai is Director of the Defence Innovation Partnership (DIP), a collaborative initiative of the South Australian Government, Defence Science and Technology Group and the three South Australian universities.
She is responsible for leading national and international R&D engagement and collaboration between researchers, industry and government, to deliver innovative solutions to Defence as well as supporting research, development and innovation activities for Defence SA and the South Australian Space Industry Centre.
Sumen has extensive government experience in developing and delivering major initiatives across investment attraction, trade, and industry development in the mining engineering, services and technologies, cleantech, space, and defence sectors.
She has been involved in driving novel initiatives such as the Convergence Series which foster conversations about major defence and national security challenges through transdisciplinary perspectives and collaboration.
Sumen has previously worked as a teacher and lecturer in Arts and Design & Technology, a science communicator, and coordinator of outreach and engagement initiatives including several open government hackathons such as the NASA Space Apps Challenge.
Sumen holds a Master of Sustainability, Bachelor of Arts (Hons), Bachelor of Education (Hons), and Bachelor of Science in Ecology and Spatial Science.